What took Wall Street so long to figure out something I’ve been saying for months?Six months ago, even before the presidential election in November, I began warning my readers that Joe Biden was going to double the capital gains tax.It wasn't a difficult prediction. Biden said so himself in his campaign website as one of a long list of policy proposals.Of course, the mainstream media didn't...Read More

Brazil-based miner Vale predicts 60 million tonnes of iron ore supply will be added to the seaborne market in 2021, with it being one of the main contributors to that volume, ferrous director Marcello Spinelli said on Tuesday April 27.Brazil alone will account for around 40 million tonnes of that production growth, Spinelli said.Iran, which was heavily pressured in 2020, will probably supply more...Read More

Turkish steel mills have started buying deep-sea scrap again at steady prices for shipment in June, market participants told Fastmarkets on Tuesday April 27.A steel mill in the Marmara region booked a Baltic Sea cargo consisting of 25,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $427.50 per tonne cfr.This compared with the most recent deep-sea transactions heard on April 21, when two Baltic Sea suppliers secu...Read More

Seaborne premium hard coking coal prices increased in the cfr market amid necessary procurement activity, which kept prices largely stable in the fob market on Tuesday April 27.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $113.46 per tonne, down $0.32 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $222.72 per tonne, up $1.11 per tonneHard coking coal, fob DBCT: $105.37 per tonne, up $0...Read More

Prices for imported ferrous scrap in China edged up on Tuesday April 27 amid renewed interest in imports.Offer prices remained stable because of the approaching Golden Week holiday period in Japan, sources said. Offers for imported ferrous scrap were heard at $510-520 per tonne cfr north China - equivalent to around $500-510 per tonne cfr east China."Many sellers are either holding on to carg...Read More

Chinese steel mills are likely to import more pig iron, hot-briquetted iron (HBI) and steel scrap to feed basic oxygen furnaces in 2021 due to the stringent restrictions imposed on blast furnaces in China, market participants told Fastmarkets recently.The China Iron & Steel Association (Cisa) is actively advocating more cuts to the country's pig iron production to achieve this year's goal of reduc...Read More

Fastmarkets' index for iron ore 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao, rose to a new record high on Tuesday April 27 with iron ore prices all going up further. The 62% Fe index has been above the previous high of $183.59 per tonne, set in January 2011, since April 20.Fastmarkets iron ore indices62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $195.31 per tonne, up by $1.73 per tonne62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $196.35 pe...Read More

Aluminium smelters are reeling in profits, with the London Metal Exchange aluminium price and premiums at multi-year highs and raw material prices depressed due to oversupply, sources said.The LME three-month aluminium price traded at a high of $2,412 per tonne so far on Tuesday, the highest since April 23, 2018, when the price hit a high of $2,531 per tonne."The light metal remains well supported...Read More

Copper and nickel were the leaders of the rally during morning trading on Tuesday April 27 on the London Metal Exchange, rising by 1.6% and 1.7% as of 9am from their Monday prices, which were also on an upward momentum.LME copper's three-month price is nearing its all-time high of $10,190 per tonne from February 2011, having hit $9,965 per tonne during early trading. It was at $9,911 per tonne at...Read More

A summary of South32's results for its third quarter ending March 31, 2021.In brief:Net cash increased by $242 million to $517 million in the quarter due to a strong operating performance combined with improving commodity prices. Brazil's sellable alumina production increased by 1% to a record 1,049,000 tonnes in the nine months to March 2021 while the refinery continued to benefit from strong pla...Read More

Copper is once again pushing ahead with its advance toward $10,000 per tonne this morning, Tuesday April 27, and such is the upward momentum now across most of the complex that it has woken nickel up from its two-month slumber in low ground. Market focused on economies that are recovering......less so on the areas where Covid-19 is ragingBase metalsMost of the LME three-month base metals prices we...Read More

Workers at silicon and manganese producer FerroAtlantica's Monzon plant in Spain have called a one-day strike on Thursday April 29, after a restructuring of the ferro-alloys production unit was announced, Fastmarkets learnt on April 27.A third meeting between employees and the company to negotiate collective redundancies heard a proposal by owner Ferroglobe that these would affect 63 workers at th...Read More

Ferroglobe will restructure its ferro-alloys production plants in France and Spain, which will affect manganese alloys, silicon and foundry alloys output near term, the company told Fastmarkets.Spain-based Ferroglobe has the production capacity for more than one million tonnes per year of ferro-alloys, such as manganese alloys, ferro-silicon, ferro-silicon magnesium, as well as foundry alloys such...Read More

The Cobalt alloy grade, in-whs Rotterdam, $/lbtrade log including business, bids and offers reported to Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets publishes trades logs for its key price assessments and indices to bring more transparencyinto the markets it covers and the pricing process it...Read More

The Cobalt standard grade, in-whs Rotterdam, $/lb trade log including business, bids and offers reported to Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets publishes trades logs for its key price assessments and indices to bring more transparencyinto the markets it covers and the pricing process it applies.Fastmarkets assessed Cobalt standard grade, in-whs...Read More

A recent downturn in the spot price for cobalt was not causing alarm among sellers because they were still seeing plenty of demand from customers with long-term contracts, sources have told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' latest price assessment for cobalt, standard grade, in-whs Rotterdam, was $20.50-22.00 per lb on Monday April 26. This compared with $15.40-16.00 per lb a year earlier.Prices have risen...Read More

This week's episode features an in-depth interview with Bluestone Resources president and CEO Jack Lundin on the company's Cerro Blanco project and its accompanying Mita geothermal project in Guatemala. Jack also discusses his previous role at Fruta del Norte and the transition to becoming president of Bluestone Resources in April.All this and more with host Adrian Pocobelli.Music Credits:"Rattles...Read More

The British are not especially peaceful. Since the Act of Unification in 1707, the Kingdom of Great Britain has fought in over 120 wars across a total of 170 countries. During this period (and contrary to the popular perception) we have been allies with France (in 18 wars) almost as many times as we have fought them (20 wars). Perception is tainted, perhaps, by the Middle Ages, when five generatio...Read More

UniGold (TSXV: UGD; US-OTC: UGDIF) has released the results of a preliminary economic assessment of a stand-alone oxide gold project, which it says will provide cash flow as the company continues to expand and evaluate the larger sulphide resource that it believes offers a longer term development opportunity at the Candelones project in the Dominican Republic.Joe Hamilton, the Toronto-based junior...Read More

Vale (NYSE: VALE), the world's no.1 nickel producer, is evaluating a potential spinoff of its base metals division as part of the miner's growing interest in the electric vehicles (EV) sector.The company, which is said to be in talks with Tesla and other EV supply chain actors about securing nickel from its Canadian operations, is in the midst of expanding its Voisey's Bay site in the province o...Read More